Technoglitch
Core Member
Priyanka Chopra may be the first Bollywood biggie to take center stage on the small screen Stateside, but she’s hardly the only actor of South Asian descent to make a dent in Hollywood. Vulture rounded up some of the brown folks taking to the small screen these days as way more than your geeky sidekick, along with their two cents on being an actor of color in the industry
Sendhil Ramamurthy, Heroes RebornRamamurthy made sci-fi fans swoon on the original Heroes, and he’ll no doubt do the same on NBC’s reboot, where he reprises his moody scientist Mohinder Suresh. In the five years since the first series wrapped, Ramamurthy’s split his time on Covert Affairs, The Office, and Beauty & the Beast, typically playing characters that weren’t originally meant to be cast as South Asian. Ramamurthy has said that finding strong, diverse characters is slim pickings.
Mindy Kaling, The Mindy Project
Perhaps the best-known actor of Indian descent, Kaling honed her comedy chops as a writer-actor — playing the beloved Kelly Kapoor — on The Office for more than a decade before immortalizing herself as Mindy Lahiri on her eponymous show, which recently shuffled over to Hulu.
Hannah Simone, New GirlAs New Girl BFF Cece, Simone — who’s Indian, German, and Greek — steals scenes with her perfect timing. Her small-screen success came as a surprise to the actress, who grew up between Canada, Cyprus, and India, studied international relations, and worked for the U.N. before hitting Hollywood.
Naveen Andrews, Sense8Fans will remember Andrews from turns in The English Patient and Lost,but cult interest in the Wachowski sibs' global sci-fi Netflix drama Sense8has no doubt further raised his profile. Despite his success, it’s been a tough road, and over the course of a decades-long career, Andrews has been very vocal about racism in Hollywood.
Aziz Ansari, Master of NoneSouth Carolina native Ansari — whose family hails from the Tamil Nadu region of India — spent six years as the dapper but doofy Tom Haverford on Parks & Recreation, but he was well known on the comedy circuit before that as one of the stars of the MTV sketch hit Human Giant. He’s also an Apatow darling, and frequently does stints in films like I Love You, Man, Funny People, and 30 Minutes or Less.
Anupam Kher, Sense8A relative newcomer to Hollywood, Kher is a 40-year vet of Indian cinema, where he’s largely known for playing meaty comedic and character roles. These days, the 60-year-old actor also hosts his own talk show for Indian TV.
Kumail Nanjiani,The GrinderNanjiani admits that most people he runs into simply know him as Dinesh, the sardonic tech geek he plays on HBO’s Silicon Valley. But the Karachi-born actor is also a stand-up comic with his own long-running show, The Meltdown With Jonah and Kumail.
Aasif Mandvi, The Brink, The Daily ShowBest known from his long-running stint as a correspondent on The Daily Show, Mandvi has had a long career on TV, including roles on ER andJericho. HBO’s The Brink sees Mandvi playing a powerless Pakistani driver to Jack Black’s egotistical American diplomat. Mandvi will return for the new incarnation of The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, and he’s co-producing a web series called Halal in the Family.
Kunal Nayyar, The Big Bang TheoryAs female-phobic astrophysicist Raj on The Big Bang Theory, Nayyar has been mining his Punjabi upbringing for laughs since 2007. But the New Delhi–raised actor pulls no punches in his new book of autobiographical essays, Yes, My Accent Is Real: And Some Other Things I Haven’t Told You, in which he talks about his rise to fame, dating, and his big fat Indian wedding.
Avan Jogia, TutFans will remember Canadian actor Jogia from his Nickelodeon smashVictorious and his role as a troubled teen accused of murder on ABC Family’s Twisted. But indie darling Jogia — who’s recently snagged roles in I Am Michael,10,000 Saints, and Shangri-La Suite — was also the swoon-worthy centerpiece in the Spike TV mini-series TUT, alongside none other than his acting idol, Ben Kingsley, who also has some South Asian ancestry
Abhi Sinha, Chasing LifeMumbai-born and Pittsburgh-raised, Sinha plays eager newspaper journalist Danny Gupta on ABC Family’s tearjerking drama Chasing Life— fitting because the actor was studying to be a sports journalist at USC before the acting bug bit. And while he’s enjoying his comic turn on a show about cancer, Sinha still thinks Hollywood has a long way to go. “You know, at this point as an actor, I’ll literally take what I can get, whatever I can sink my teeth into,” Sinha has said. “
Raza Jaffrey, Code BlackBrit actor Jaffrey — whose dad is Indian and mom is English — got his start on the U.K. hit EastEnders before doing the BBC spy drama Spooks.But he’s best known Stateside as the cranky boyfriend on Smash and Pakistani colonel Aasar Khan on Homeland. The Royal Shakespeare Company–trained actor has made his mark on British theater but tanked Stateside in the short-lived Broadway musical Bollywood Dreams.
Also on TV in recent years:Irfan Khan, In Treatment; Danny Pudi,Community; Parminder Nagra, The Blacklist, NCIS: Los Angeles; Archie Punjabi, The Good Wife; Kal Penn, a bunch of canceled stuff; Dev Patel,The Newsroom; Nimrat Kaur, Homeland; Suraj Sharma, Homeland; Sarita Choudhury, Homeland.
South Asian Actors Are All Over TV This Year -- Vulture
Sendhil Ramamurthy, Heroes RebornRamamurthy made sci-fi fans swoon on the original Heroes, and he’ll no doubt do the same on NBC’s reboot, where he reprises his moody scientist Mohinder Suresh. In the five years since the first series wrapped, Ramamurthy’s split his time on Covert Affairs, The Office, and Beauty & the Beast, typically playing characters that weren’t originally meant to be cast as South Asian. Ramamurthy has said that finding strong, diverse characters is slim pickings.
Mindy Kaling, The Mindy Project
Perhaps the best-known actor of Indian descent, Kaling honed her comedy chops as a writer-actor — playing the beloved Kelly Kapoor — on The Office for more than a decade before immortalizing herself as Mindy Lahiri on her eponymous show, which recently shuffled over to Hulu.
Hannah Simone, New GirlAs New Girl BFF Cece, Simone — who’s Indian, German, and Greek — steals scenes with her perfect timing. Her small-screen success came as a surprise to the actress, who grew up between Canada, Cyprus, and India, studied international relations, and worked for the U.N. before hitting Hollywood.
Naveen Andrews, Sense8Fans will remember Andrews from turns in The English Patient and Lost,but cult interest in the Wachowski sibs' global sci-fi Netflix drama Sense8has no doubt further raised his profile. Despite his success, it’s been a tough road, and over the course of a decades-long career, Andrews has been very vocal about racism in Hollywood.
Aziz Ansari, Master of NoneSouth Carolina native Ansari — whose family hails from the Tamil Nadu region of India — spent six years as the dapper but doofy Tom Haverford on Parks & Recreation, but he was well known on the comedy circuit before that as one of the stars of the MTV sketch hit Human Giant. He’s also an Apatow darling, and frequently does stints in films like I Love You, Man, Funny People, and 30 Minutes or Less.
Anupam Kher, Sense8A relative newcomer to Hollywood, Kher is a 40-year vet of Indian cinema, where he’s largely known for playing meaty comedic and character roles. These days, the 60-year-old actor also hosts his own talk show for Indian TV.
Kumail Nanjiani,The GrinderNanjiani admits that most people he runs into simply know him as Dinesh, the sardonic tech geek he plays on HBO’s Silicon Valley. But the Karachi-born actor is also a stand-up comic with his own long-running show, The Meltdown With Jonah and Kumail.
Aasif Mandvi, The Brink, The Daily ShowBest known from his long-running stint as a correspondent on The Daily Show, Mandvi has had a long career on TV, including roles on ER andJericho. HBO’s The Brink sees Mandvi playing a powerless Pakistani driver to Jack Black’s egotistical American diplomat. Mandvi will return for the new incarnation of The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, and he’s co-producing a web series called Halal in the Family.
Kunal Nayyar, The Big Bang TheoryAs female-phobic astrophysicist Raj on The Big Bang Theory, Nayyar has been mining his Punjabi upbringing for laughs since 2007. But the New Delhi–raised actor pulls no punches in his new book of autobiographical essays, Yes, My Accent Is Real: And Some Other Things I Haven’t Told You, in which he talks about his rise to fame, dating, and his big fat Indian wedding.
Avan Jogia, TutFans will remember Canadian actor Jogia from his Nickelodeon smashVictorious and his role as a troubled teen accused of murder on ABC Family’s Twisted. But indie darling Jogia — who’s recently snagged roles in I Am Michael,10,000 Saints, and Shangri-La Suite — was also the swoon-worthy centerpiece in the Spike TV mini-series TUT, alongside none other than his acting idol, Ben Kingsley, who also has some South Asian ancestry
Abhi Sinha, Chasing LifeMumbai-born and Pittsburgh-raised, Sinha plays eager newspaper journalist Danny Gupta on ABC Family’s tearjerking drama Chasing Life— fitting because the actor was studying to be a sports journalist at USC before the acting bug bit. And while he’s enjoying his comic turn on a show about cancer, Sinha still thinks Hollywood has a long way to go. “You know, at this point as an actor, I’ll literally take what I can get, whatever I can sink my teeth into,” Sinha has said. “
Raza Jaffrey, Code BlackBrit actor Jaffrey — whose dad is Indian and mom is English — got his start on the U.K. hit EastEnders before doing the BBC spy drama Spooks.But he’s best known Stateside as the cranky boyfriend on Smash and Pakistani colonel Aasar Khan on Homeland. The Royal Shakespeare Company–trained actor has made his mark on British theater but tanked Stateside in the short-lived Broadway musical Bollywood Dreams.
Also on TV in recent years:Irfan Khan, In Treatment; Danny Pudi,Community; Parminder Nagra, The Blacklist, NCIS: Los Angeles; Archie Punjabi, The Good Wife; Kal Penn, a bunch of canceled stuff; Dev Patel,The Newsroom; Nimrat Kaur, Homeland; Suraj Sharma, Homeland; Sarita Choudhury, Homeland.
South Asian Actors Are All Over TV This Year -- Vulture
